Art, alex dragulescu, design, dragulescu, ircbot, messagelabs, mydoom, mytob, netsky...

World's Least Favorite Computer Viruses As Haunting 3D Art

The image above isn't something from James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep. No, it's actually an artist's rendering of a spam email with the subject, "HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THAT YOU ARE GETTING FAT?" The images below represent some of the most notorious code the world has seen, including PWS-Lineage, Stormy, MyDoom, Mytob, IRCBot and Netsky.

Artist Alex Dragulescu renders these eerie 3D images using the neutralized code of viruses, worms, spyware and Trojan horses. He gets the code from the security firm MessageLabs, which commissioned the works. Dragulescu explains:

API calls, memory addresses and subroutines are tracked and analyzed. Their frequency, density and grouping are mapped to the inputs of an algorithm that grows a virtual 3D entity.

Why does this remind me so much of all those movies where scientists culture supposedly neutralized biological viruses, and the next thing you know 97% of the earth is dead? No, Alex, we wouldn't like a signed, numbered digital copy of your virus collection on our hard-drive, no matter how safe you say it is! [Alex Dragulescu via Gizmodo AU]

5:00 PM on Sat Mar 8 2008
By Wilson Rothman
16,135 views
20 comments

Comments

92BuickLeSabre at 05:15 PM on 03/08/08
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"Virtually" the same idea as these, but prettier.
DucatiGuy at 05:17 PM on 03/08/08
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This is the reason why artists cut their own ears off...
--Tito-- at 05:20 PM on 03/08/08
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LOL, 2nd to the last looks like a plant.
tehronin at 05:48 PM on 03/08/08
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Is netsky smokable? rofl
angryhorsedojo at 05:53 PM on 03/08/08
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How could they forget our beloved Trojan?
Amiash is not allowed at 05:58 PM on 03/08/08
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my has this virus....
Michai at 06:08 PM on 03/08/08
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I'm wondering which variables he chose to use from the programs to incorporate into the 3d rendering software. Or is it just his abstract vision of the viruses, if thats the case....lame.
Michai at 06:09 PM on 03/08/08
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"API calls, memory addresses and subroutines are tracked and analyzed. Their frequency, density and grouping are mapped to the inputs of an algorithm that grows a virtual 3D entity."

Ok nevermind.
pocketcowboy at 07:16 PM on 03/08/08
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needs more googly eyes
Bueller at 07:30 PM on 03/08/08
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Put down the bong and step away from the rendering software...
racermd at 07:42 PM on 03/08/08
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Where's the "I love you" virus?
theshizzle at 08:16 PM on 03/08/08
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i could smoke that...
gadgetfanatic at 08:57 PM on 03/08/08
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@theshizzle: If you soked it you'd prbably die.
man_in_gauze at 11:53 PM on 03/08/08
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I like how the first one in the gallery does sorta look like an actual virus. Or at least like a 3D rendering of AIDS that I went into once.
NoStyle at 01:09 AM on 03/09/08
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"have you ever heard you are getting fat?" as a Spam? I am out touch on Spam lines, good.
esecasco at 12:18 PM on 03/09/08
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If this is what a virus looks like, I'm scared to see the sort of monstrosity Windows Vista might produce.
Geisrud at 02:02 PM on 03/09/08
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Netsky? What about Skynet?
Demosthenes7898 at 12:27 PM on 03/10/08
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@esecasco:
[www.mnwxchaser.com]
We get it, people don't like Vista.

To get back on topic: I find this pretty interesting, I'd like to know more of the logistics behind this 3D rendering and see if this could be applied somehow genetically. It's a bit loopy, I know, but if possible I would LOVE to see the results.
MadCrazy at 01:40 PM on 03/10/08
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This Is Sweet!

I wonder what an OS would look like if he reendered in the safe way....they should do a five minute movie of one these things going after one..!
-LONGBOW- at 07:18 AM on 03/21/08
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@Demosthenes7898:

The algorythim Alex uses likely contains a fair amount of artistic privilege, meaning he decides that a certain function call looks squiggly or pointy or whatever. With the frequency and density and grouping modifying that object in some way...

You could do the same thing with genetics using the GATCCTAGCCGAGTCTCACGCAA sequences and running them through a similarly arbitrary algorythm.

But I bet you dollars to doughnuts that your rendering won't look a thing like the organism whose genes were used. Unless you had a complete understanding of genetics, physics, biology, and chemistry, of course... :)

@MadCrazy:

I was thinking the same thing... Sadly, such a film would probably take years to render though.

I wonder if more benign software would look just as evil as these pictures?
You never know, MSPaint might produce a Jabberwocky...

@angryhorsedojo:

Most viruses are trojans.